Confinity
Confinity Inc. was an American software company based in , best known as the creator of PayPal which was founded by . It was founded in December 1998 by , Peter Thiel, and , initially as a payments and cryptography company.
Many of Confinity’s initial recruits were alumni of , also co-founded by Thiel, and most early engineers hailed from the , recruited by Levchin. Early investors included , , and , the founder of .
Confinity’s second office, in , is also known for being the former office of and .
Confinity launched its milestone product, PayPal, in late 1999.<ref name=”:0″ /> Confinity merged with , founded by , in March 2000. The merged company became known as X.com because this was thought to be a name with broader long-term potential than Confinity or PayPal. However, surveys showed that a majority of consumers considered the name X.com vague and potentially pornographic and preferred that the company simply be called PayPal. After a corporate restructuring, the company adopted the name PayPal Inc.
After an IPO, the company was purchased by . eBay and PayPal became separate companies in 2015.